


Vox

by strixus



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Gen, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-28
Updated: 2009-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-05 09:09:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strixus/pseuds/strixus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A moment of waiting leads Quatre to reconsider Heero in a new context.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vox

**Author's Note:**

> Song is Vox by Sarah McLachlan  
> "I pull you from your tower, take away your pain, show you all the beauty you possess if you'd only let yourself believe"   
> -Sarah Mclachlan

In the desert of my dreams I saw you there  
And I'm walking towards the water steaming body cold and bare  
But your words cut loose the fire and you left my soul to bleed  
And the pain that's in your truth's deceiving me, has got me scared   
Oh why?

"So what do we do now?" Quatre asked.

"We wait." Heero said with his usual curt bluntness. He lay on his stomach on the bedroll mattress, looking at the canvas of the tent they were being held in. Quatre sat beside him, holding his knees to his chest, rocking slightly with an anxious energy.

"I mean, we are going to escape, and stop them, right?"

"Yes, but not now." Heero rolled over, and looked at Quatre. "There are too many people around still. We will leave sometime before dawn." Heero studied Quatre's nervous habits for a moment. "I suggest you get some sleep, Quatre."

Quatre nodded and sighed. "I'll try," he said, but made no move to lie down.

Heero sat up, and started rummaging through the satchel he kept his laptop in. He came up with a white plastic bottle several minutes later, and held it out to Quatre with a subtle shake. The white plastic rattled with the unmistakable sound of large pills.

"Sleeping pills?" Quatre shook his head. "No, I'd rather be groggy from lack of sleep than from pills."

Heero shrugged, and reached to put them back in the bag. As he did so, he froze for a moment and gave an involuntary grunt of pain as something in his shoulder popped loud enough for Quatre to hear.

"Are you ok?" Quatre asked as Heero stretched the arm and shoulder again when he sat back up, something in the joint popping and snapping as it rotated.

"I'm fine." Heero said as he continued to try to stretch out the shoulder, his face a grimace of pain.

"You know what, Heero?"

"What?" Heero said with an annoyed tone to his voice.

"You're a really bad liar." Quatre ignored Heero's grunt of annoyance. "Here, turn around, and I'll rub that out for you."

"It's fine." Heero glared at Quatre, and wrapped his other arm around sore one protectively.

"No, it's not fine, now, quit being stubborn and turn around."

Heero sighed, and obliged. Quatre smiled, happy to be doing something other than staring at the tent wall, and pressed his fingers into the muscles of Heero's upper arm and shoulder.

 

Through your eyes the strains of battle like a brooding storm  
You're up and down these pristine velvet walls like focus never forms  
My walls are getting wider and my eyes are drawn astray  
I see you now a vague deception of a dying day  
Oh why?

 

"You know this shoulder will probably always give you trouble, Heero." Quatre said, moving his fingers carefully to avoid the still tender white flesh that had formed over the bullet exit wound. Despite his best efforts, Heero grunted in pain every time Quatre pressed too close.

Quatre paused to brush back his bangs. "Ugh. This would be easier if you'd take off your shirt and lay down."

Heero looked askance at Quatre over his shoulder, but shrugged and pulled off his green tank top with a fluid motion hindered only by the twinge of the shoulder. Quatre gasped, and then blushed at how loud it had been. Heero looked over his shoulder again at Quatre with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm sorry." Quatre stammered. "It's just that…" Quatre shook his head. "What happened to you, Heero?"

Heero shrugged, and started to lie down as Quatre had instructed. Quatre could only stare at Heero's back, a network of interlaced scars, half healed abrasions, and a handful of what looked like burn scars, and wonder at the legacy of pain written there. Quatre shook his head, and looked down at his own hands, thin fingered and soft, barely calloused by the control levers of a Gundam, the only real work they had ever known.

What a soft life I have had, Quatre thought to himself as he looked across Heero's back, no matter all the pain and horror of war. No one should have to endure all the injuries that caused all of that.

Quatre carefully moved to kneel beside Heero's upper back, and began to massage the shoulder again. He let his hands move of their own accord, seeking tension and misalignment in the muscles and tendons, wandering from the shoulder once it was tended to, across the neck and to the opposite shoulder. Absently, his fingers brushed seven parallel surgical scars on the back of Heero's neck, and Quatre realized they had been used to fix or even prevent pinching of the nerves in the neck. Quatre grimaced with disgust, noticing similar scars clustered in other areas along the length of the rest of the spine, but they were less clear, cut across by less deliberate looking injuries, and the scabs of half-healed scrapes.

Quatre looked away from the horrible sight, and looked down at Heero's face, which was lying on his folded arms. His eyes were closed, relaxed as though he was asleep, but Quatre knew he wasn't, because just loosely there was a small smile on his lips. Quatre half smiled to himself.

"Heero?"

"Hn?" Heero replied, not moving even to open his eyes.

"Mind if I do the rest of your back? Do we have time?"

Heero nodded. "Hours still, Quatre." And then barely loud enough that Quatre heard it, Heero made a sound that sounded like nothing so much as a purr.

 

I fall into the water and once more I turn to you  
And the crowds were standing staring faceless cutting off my view to you  
They start to limply flail their bodies in a twisted mime  
And I'm lost inside this tangled web in which I'm lain entwined  
You're gone and I'm lost inside this tangled web in which I'm lain entwined  
Oh why?

 

Quatre focused himself on the movements of his hands, his fingertips pushing against the layers of skin and muscle, moving slowly to help relax the tensions of the bundles of muscles that ran parallel to the spine. Too, he was trying to ignore the feeling of the ridges and bumps of scar tissue that blemished the bronze skin of Heero's back, the slashes and punctures, the abrasions and strange, ring shaped scars that ran in regular patterns down the length of his back.

Quatre sighed deeply. How could anyone cope with this much pain, even half of these, he wondered to himself. And I imagine his legs are just as bad, if not worse. The thought made him shudder inwardly.

"Quatre." Heero's voice called his name, tone not betraying his emotion.  
"Yes, Heero?" Quatre paused the massage, hands resting lightly on Heero's skin.

"Don't concern yourself for me. I am," Heero paused, and turned his eyes to look at Quatre, "I am away from those who caused all of that. I have only this mission, and then my purpose will be complete." Heero closed his eyes again, and breathed out slowly, almost a sigh.

"It's just not right, though, Heero. No one should have to…" Quatre trailed off, seeing Heero looking at him again. "Don't you want to get back at whoever did this?"

"I am." Heero said simply, and closed his eyes again.

Bewildered, Quatre went back to massaging the muscles along Heero's lower spine. He made broad, circular motions with the flats of his hands, the thumbs digging in deeply into the thick cords of muscle as the fingertips brushed the wide, thin sheets of muscle along the back of the ribs and abdomen wall. Quatre worked all the way down Heero's back, until the tips of his fingers brushed the edge of the black shorts Heero always wore. From there, he worked back up, each hand massaging the side of Heero's torso, and then back around, meeting again at the shoulder blades. There, he stopped, and sighed, letting his hands rest.

Heero, however, had other ideas. He rolled over onto his side, pulling himself out from under Quatre. He sat up, looking at the surprised blond Gundam pilot for a moment, before reaching out and brushing across Quatre's cheek with the fingertips of his left hand.

"You feel to much, Quatre." Heero said. Quatre, stunned, opened his mouth to say something, but could find no words. "It's time to go now, Quatre. The guards should be long asleep."

Heero pulled back on his shirt, picked up his stuff, and stood waiting by the tent flap for Quatre to finish gathering his things. At last collected, Quatre joined Heero at the door to their makeshift prison.

"Thank you, Quatre." Heero said softly, and then pulled the tent flap aside, and darted out into the night, leaving Quatre, once again too stunned for words, with no choice but to follow, or be left behind.


End file.
